Helen Haskell, founder of Mothers Against Medical Error, describes her son's fatal care in a new video.

The needless death of 15-year-old Lewis Blackman, son of national patient advocate Helen Haskell, is receiving renewed focus — most recently during a major health-care summit in California aimed at preventing medical mistakes.

Premiering there was a new video featuring Helen describing the wrenching details surrounding Blackman’s poor care in 2000 following elective surgery at Medical University of South Carolina.

The case, which I highlighted in a 2010 investigation, remains powerfully emblematic of one form of preventable patient harm — lax supervision of resident doctors by faculty physicians at teaching hospitals such as Parkland Memorial Hospital.

You may recall a story I wrote in December 2010,”Dying on the Learning Curve,” examining how lax supervision of resident doctors in training isn’t isolated to Parkland Memorial Hospital. Over the decades, patients across the country have suffered needless death and injury as a result of such breakdowns.

The death of Helen Haskell’s son, in particular, drew me in. She checked her 15-year-old son into the Children’s Hospital at the Medical University of South Carolina to correct a chest wall cavity defect. But for days after his surgery, he suffered fevers, horrible stomach pain and struggled to urinate. The doctor trainees left in charge of his care failed to understand what medical experts said were the side effects of a bleeding ulcer caused by painkillers, according to the settlement agreement she reached with the medical school.

More than 10 years later, Haskell has put the lessons of her personal tragedy to powerful use. She’s one of the most active health-care advocates in the country, pressing for better laws to protect patients and striving to educate people about how they can take more control of their care.

And of course, the patient-care crisis at Parkland – the largest hospital in the nation ever to be placed under a rare form of federal safety oversight – keeps crackling on her radar.

“Clearly the whole system is unsafe,” said Haskell, founder of the South Carolina-based Mothers Against Medical Errors, referring to Parkland.Continue reading →